arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Ilya Shkredov.
We take the first step toward a structure theory that includes both operations of a ring $\mathcal{R}$. More precisely, we prove a series of inverse results for the structure of sets $A\subseteq \mathbf{F}_p$ such that, under certain conditions on integers $r_1, \dots, r_k$, one has $|A^{r_1} + \dots + A^{r_k}| \ll \sqrt[k]{p^{k-1} |A|}$.
It was asked by E. Szemerédi if, for a finite set $A\subset\mathbb{Z}$, one can improve estimates for $\max\{|A+A|,|A\cdot A|\}$, under the constraint that all integers involved have a bounded number of prime factors -- that is, each $a\in A$ satisfies $ω(a)\leq k$. In this paper, answer Szemerédi's question in the affirmative by showing that this maximum is of order $|A|^{\frac{5}{3}-o(1)}$ provided $k\leq (\log|A|)^{1-ε}$ for some $ε>0$. In fact, this will follow from an estimate for additive energy which is best possible up to factors of size $|A|^{o(1)}$.
We prove in particular that for any sufficiently large prime $p$ there is $1\le a<p$ such that all partial quotients of $a/p$ are bounded by $O(\log p/\log \log p)$. For composite denominators a similar result is obtained. This improves the well--known Korobov bound concerning Zaremba's conjecture from the theory of continued fractions.
It was proved by Ron Graham and the second author that for any coloring of the $N \times N$ grid using fewer than $\log \log N$ colours, one can always find a monochromatic isosceles right triangle, a triangle with vertex coordinates $(x, y),(x + d, y),$ and $(x, y + d).$ In this paper we are asking questions where not only axis-parallel, but tilted isosceles right triangles are considered as well. Both colouring and density variants of the problem will be discussed.
The paper deals with a problem of Additive Combinatorics. Let ${\mathbf G}$ be a finite abelian group of order $N$. We prove that the number of subset triples $A,B,C\subset {\mathbf G}$ such that for any $x\in A$, $y\in B$ and $z\in C$ one has $x+y\ne z$ equals $$ 3\cdot 4^N+N3^{N+1} + O((3-c_*)^N) $$ for some absolute constant $c_*>0$. This provides a tight estimate for the number of independent sets in a special 3-uniform linear hypergraph and gives a support for the natural conjecture concerning the maximal possible number of independent sets in such hypergraphs on $n$ vertices.
Let $p$ a large enough prime number. When $A$ is a subset of $\mathbb{F}_p\smallsetminus\{0\}$ of cardinality $|A|> (p+1)/3$, then an application of Cauchy-Davenport Theorem gives $\mathbb{F}_p\smallsetminus\{0\}\subset A(A+A)$. In this note, we improve on this and we show that if $|A|\ge 0.3051 p$ implies $A(A+A)\supseteq\mathbb{F}_p\smallsetminus\{0\}$. In the opposite direction we show that there exists a set $A$ such that $|A| > (1/8+o(1))p$ and $\mathbb{F}_p\smallsetminus\{0\}\not\subseteq A(A+A)$.
Let $F$ be a field and a finite $A\subset F$ be sufficiently small in terms of the characteristic $p$ of $F$ if $p>0$. We strengthen the "threshold" sum-product inequality $$|AA|^3 |A\pm A|^2 \gg |A|^6\,,\;\;\;\;\mbox{hence} \;\; \;\;|AA|+|A+A|\gg |A|^{1+\frac{1}{5}},$$ due to Roche-Newton, Rudnev and Shkredov, to $$|AA|^5 |A\pm A|^4 \gg |A|^{11-o(1)}\,,\;\;\;\;\mbox{hence} \;\; \;\;|AA|+|A\pm A|\gg |A|^{1+\frac{2}{9}-o(1)},$$ as well as $$ |AA|^{36}|A-A|^{24} \gg |A|^{73-o(1)}. $$ The latter inequality is "threshold-breaking", for it shows for $ε>0$, one has $$|AA| \le |A|^{1+ε}\;\;\;\Rightarrow\;\;\; |A-A|\gg |A|^{\frac{3}{2}+c(ε)},$$ with $c(ε)>0$ if $ε$ is sufficiently small. This implies that regardless of $ε$, $$|AA-AA|\gg |A|^{\frac{3}{2}+\frac{1}{56}-o(1)}\,.$$
We prove bounds for the popularity of products of sets with weak additive structure, and use these bounds to prove results about continued fractions. Namely, we obtain a nearly sharp upper bound for the cardinality of Zaremba's set modulo $p$.
This is a sequel to the paper arXiv:1312.6438 by the same authors. In this sequel, we quantitatively improve several of the main results of arXiv:1312.6438, and build on the methods therein. The main new results is that, for any finite set $A \subset \mathbb R$, there exists $a \in A$ such that $|A(A+a)| \gtrsim |A|^{\frac{3}{2}+\frac{1}{186}}$. We give improved bounds for the cardinalities of $A(A+A)$ and $A(A-A)$. Also, we prove that $|\{(a_1+a_2+a_3+a_4)^2+\log a_5 : a_i \in A \}| \gg \frac{|A|^2}{\log |A|}$. The latter result is optimal up to the logarithmic factor.
Let $F$ be a field of characteristic $p>2$ and $A\subset F$ have sufficiently small cardinality in terms of $p$. We improve the state of the art of a variety of sum-product type inequalities. In particular, we prove that $$ |AA|^2|A+A|^3 \gg |A|^6,\qquad |A(A+A)|\gg |A|^{3/2}. $$ We also prove several two-variable extractor estimates: ${\displaystyle |A(A+1)| \gg|A|^{9/8},}$ $$ |A+A^2|\gg |A|^{11/10},\; |A+A^3|\gg |A|^{29/28}, \; |A+1/A|\gg |A|^{31/30}.$$ Besides, we address questions of cardinalities $|A+A|$ vs $|f(A)+f(A)|$, for a polynomial $f$, where we establish the inequalities $$ \max(|A+A|,\, |A^2+A^2|)\gg |A|^{8/7}, \;\; \max(|A-A|,\, |A^3+A^3|)\gg |A|^{17/16}. $$ Szemerédi-Trotter type implications of the arithmetic estimates in question are that a Cartesian product point set $P=A\times B$ in $F^2$, of $n$ elements, with $|B|\leq |A|< p^{2/3}$ makes $O(n^{3/4}m^{2/3} + m + n)$ incidences with any set of $m$ lines. In particular, when $|A|=|B|$, there are $\ll n^{9/4}$ collinear triples of points in $P$, $\gg n^{3/2}$ distinct lines between pairs of its points, in $\gg n^{3/4}$ distinct directions. Besides, $P=A\times A$ determines $\gg n^{9/16}$ distinct pair-wise distances. These estimates are obtained on the basis of a new plane geometry interpretation of the incidence theorem between points and planes in three dimensions, which we call collisions of images.
We show that for any set A in a finite Abelian group G that has at least c |A|^3 solutions to a_1 + a_2 = a_3 + a_4, where a_i belong A there exist sets A' in A and L in G, |L| \ll c^{-1} log |A| such that A' is contained in Span of L and A' has approximately c |A|^3 solutions to a'_1 + a'_2 = a'_3 + a'_4, where a'_i belong A'. We also study so-called symmetric sets or, in other words, sets of large values of convolution.